Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Last Sunday KeeWee and I loaded up our gear and headed South to Puyallup, WA. to the Paul Bunyan Gun Club for their monthly fun steel match. The weather forecast was for chilly temperatures, but a few sun breaks, and no wind, rain, or snow. Although it doesn't always work out that way here in the Pacific Northwest, the weather-dudes got it right this time, and that's exactly what we got.

Caleb, Phil, Tim, and James, early in the match, and already having fun!

The match was five stages, and we had a pretty good turnout, with 68 entries. More and more folks are finding out just how much fun it is to shoot a fun steel match. Will, the match director, set up the stages and determined the layout for the targets, or plates, and the idea for this match was for it to be blazing fast all day. Boy, was it! It was the kind of a match that can really give you a lot of bad habits, as the targets were big and close, and in some cases were double taps, or more! Every stage required a minimum of five shots per shot string, yet a number of the shooters averaged less that two seconds per shot string!

We had a great squad, with blogger Phil, Caleb, Shelley, Dan, James, Tim, KeeWee, John, Jeanette,and myself. (Who am I forgetting?). Jeanette, John's better half, was shooting her very first steel match and was a bit nervous, but she did just fine, shooting accurately without rushing. That's not easy to do at your first match! This was my first chance to shoot with Caleb, my GUNUP.COM Pro Staff team mate, so that just added to the fun!

It seemed like the match went by quickly, but my fingers and toes were glad that it was over, as there were definitely starting to get cold. After the match was over and all of the targets and target stands were put away, we headed to a restaurant at the nearby airport for food,refreshments, conversation, airplane watching (particularly James and I) and warmth!

After a good meal, we headed home, except for a couple of shopping stops along the way. We were able to catch the 6:30pm ferry bach to Whidbey Island, and then home to a warm bed and a good night's sleep.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Lewis & Clark Air Rifle

It's Saturday night and I've got all the race guns cleaned, checked, and ready to go for tomorrow's steel match at the Paul Bunyan Club in Puyallup, WA. It's forecast to be clear, sunny, and a bit chilly, but that shouldn't bother us since we're TOUGH, Kinda tough, not very tough, actually, I hate it when it's cold at a match....

Oh well, it's always a good time at a Paul Bunyan Steel Match, and there should be some new faces there tomorrow in addition to the usual suspects. I'll try to take some pictures, if I remember to take the camera!

On another subject, check out the Lewis & Clark Expedition air rifle.

If I don't see you at Paul Bunyan, we'll talk to you later on, and let you know how it went.

Friday, February 18, 2011

My 2011 Match Schedule

I finally got around to putting together my match schedule for 2011. Not everything is on the list as some dates have not been set. There are also some dates listed that are matches that will be upgraded to club or regional championships, but I haven't got that information yet. I may not be able to attend all of the matches shown, primarily for financial reasons, but I plan to get to most of them if I possibly can.

It looks like I better stock up on a lot of ammo, as I'm going to be busy!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

NRA Defends High School Duck Hunter and Wins Big - COOL!

I saw this over at Random Nuclear Strikes, and I thought it should be watched by as many folks as possible, particularly those that question if the NRA actually does anything worthwhile. Clearly, they do.......

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

GUNUP.COM To Sponsor Geek Shootouts Nationwide

A while back I got the chance to attend the first Geek Shootout, sponsored by GUNUP.COM. It was at an indoor range in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue. T%his first event was in the evening, starting with some quality range time, and then followed by some socializing at a local watering hole. Unfortunately I wasn't able to stick around for the socializing as I had a fair ways to drive plus a ferry ride to get home. None the less, everyone seemed to have a great time, and now GUNUP has decided to take the Geek Shootouts nation-wide. Here's the email I got from Dan Hall, the head honcho at GUNUP:

As always, we send out our news to our bloggers first. So in that tradition, we are pleased to announce our nationwide expansion of the popular Seattle Geek Shootout.

We are a proud sponsor of the Seattle Geek Shootout which has been a tremendous success and we are excited to announce that we, along with our friends at Girl's Guide to Guns, are bringing the Geek Shootout to Los Angeles, the first of many Geek Shootout Tour venues. We are going to let the community decide where we take the Geek Shootout next and enthusiasts can go to GeekShootout.com (launching February 21st) and tell us why the Geek Shootout Tour should come to their city.

For all the Geek Shootouts, GunUp provides lane fees, targets, and GunUp T-Shirts. We feel that it is paramount to reach demographics not normally associated with the Shooting Sports Industry. There is actually tremendous interest from those in the gaming and technology community to see what shooting is all about, these events provide a opportunity for people to experience the fun of shooting in a safe and supportive environment.

Thank you for your continued support.

Dan HallCEO, GunUp

If you are interested in hosting a GUNUP Geek Shootout in your home town, why not drop Dan an email at dan (at) gunup (dot) comand let him know you are interested, and who knows, one fine day your local range my be filled with happy folks alternately discussing the merits of CCI and C++ !

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Win a Ruger Blackhawk 45 At GBR-VI

For those of you that attended the Gun Blogger Rendezvous last year or the year before, you already know True blue Sam's Mom Bea. For those of you that haven't met Bea, True Blue Sam has a post up about his 110 pound (maybe) 80 year old .45 Revolver packing mother. It is an absolute 'Must Read". Not only is Bea one of the coolest shooters you'll ever meet, she has decided that since she has a Ruger Black Hawk in .45, she figures everyone should have one!

Bea has arranged with Ken Jorgensen, Lori Petoske, and the great folks at Ruger to buy a brand new Ruger Black Hawk, which she is then donating to be raffled off at this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous as part of our fund raising efforts in support of Project Valour-IT!

You better start making plans to be there at this year's Gun Blogger rendezvous!

Monday, February 07, 2011

OKO Sights are finally here and Misc.

I realize I've been blogging a lot about the OKO sights and the new store on line, Magnum Shooters Supply, but that's a whole lot of what I've been up to lately! The OKO sight shipment form the Czech Republic has arrived in perfect condition, and everything has been accounted for, and put on the shelves, ready to fly out the door!

For those of you that I see and shoot with regularly that are interested in seeing the sights in person, just let me know and I'll bring a few along so you can have a closer look.

I am in the process of lining up a wholesale distributor for a very popular (and reliable) line of rimfire ammunition for the store. I don't know if it will work out or not, but if I can maintain decent prices and supply, I'm going to give it a try.

Someone once said that the secret to business success is simple: "Try what might work, Keep doing what is working, and stop doing what isn't working!"

Friday, February 04, 2011

OKO Sights - 20 Miles Away!

As you can probably imagine, I've been sweating bullets over this shipment of OKO sights from the Czech Republic. The horror stories from the past where sights would get stuck in Customs for months certainly didn't help, although they sure did provide a lot of motivation to check, double-check, and triple-check every document, regulation, and requirement I could find to make sure all the export and import papers were in order. Following the UPS tracking data, the OKO Sight shipment made it through Customs in a little over twelve hours from when it arrived at Customs to when it was given back to UPS. The route took the shipment from Prague to Germany to London, to Kentucky to Seattle. Right now it is on a truck going from Seattle to Everett, WA to the distribution center. From there it goes onto the BTOJ, and should arrive on Monday.

Monday will be busy, but by Monday evening we should be ready to start shipping out sights. WHEW....

I will be contacting some of the Gun Bloggers to see who wants to get a T&E (Test & Evaluation) sight to try out and post about. If you like it and want to keep it, I'll make you a very good deal, and if you want to send it back, that's fine, too. This does make for a good way to get a really good deal on a OKO Sight, though.

“Kelly is a champion High Power Rifle competitor who embodies the enthusiasm for the Shooting Sports that we want to support,” says Dan Hall, CEO of GunUp.com. “He is a hard working, local student so sponsoring him was an easy decision. We are excited to have Kelly be part of the GunUp Pro Staff.”

"Not too long ago I would have thought the words "Pro Staff" and my name didn't belong in the same sentence,” adds Kelly Bachand. “I'm very excited to be part of the GunUp Pro Staff. Their vision and use of technology resonated strongly with me. I hope my youth, drive, and humility bring a unique perspective to the team."

Kelly joins fellow competitive shooters, Caleb Giddings and Mike Gallion, (that last name sounds kinda familiar!) as part of the GunUp Pro Staff. The GunUp Pro Staff contributes monthly articles to GunUp and field questions asked by GunUp Members on their recently launched Question & Answer section.

About GunUp, Inc.:

GunUp, Inc., located in Seattle, Washington, was founded in 2010 by Dan Hall, a combat veteran and firearms enthusiast. Working with a team of like-minded, internet savvy technicians and programmers, they created the only online firearms community where new and experienced gun owners can access current product information and subject matter experts in the firearms industry. www.gunup.com

GunUp.com now has advertising opportunities available, providing companies with a low-cost, effective avenue to reach thousands of firearms enthusiasts.